‘A place to escape the city and appreciate the magical views of the Western Ghats mountains’ was the brief given to Red Brick Studio for this amazing home in India. Given a parcel of land on the steep slopes above the Panshet Dam, the architects immediately decided that to respect the location and create a home with the space and grandeur required would mean digging into the hillside. Excavations of the slope meant that the Cove House is partially hidden, a lavish bunker squeezed below the earth. Able to host grand gatherings, while maintaining semblances of intimacy throughout the floorplan, the Cove House is a palatial retreat likely to tempt its family from the city at every opportunity.

Huge doors link the home to the outside, disappearing into cavernous pockets inside the walls to create a spectacular connection to the views below. Interior and exterior design blurs elsewhere too, with the pink/red pigment of the grit plaster – used to ingratiate the home with its natural environment – seeping inside to complement the polished and raw concrete of the clean, sleek living spaces. See more work by Red Brick Studio on Instagram.

Photography © Hemant Patil for Red Brick Studio